Phillies pitching gives up 3 home runs, offense stutters in loss to Giants

The Philadelphia Phillies (56-51) simply looked outmatched against Jeff Samardzija and a bare-bones San Francisco Giants (55-53) bullpen after a taxing trade deadline. The offense struggled to get anything going in a 5-1 loss.

Pitching was the story tonight. Both Vince Velasquez and Samardzija cruised through their opposing lineups early on. The best chance either team had through five innings was in the top of the third. Joe Panik led off with a double off the right field wall and Austin Slater followed up with a bloop single to put runners on first and third with nobody out. The Giants failed to capitalize as Mike Yastrzemski and Buster Posey both struck out with the bases loaded.

The tie was finally broken in the sixth when Buster Posey ripped a high fastball into the seats in left-center field for a two-run home run, his fifth career round tripper against the Phillies.

Kapler elected to take Velasquez out of the game and replaced him with left-hander Adam Morgan with right-handed hitter Pablo Sandoval waiting on deck. That didn’t prove to be the right move as Sandoval promptly took Morgan deep for back-to-back home runs. Two batters later, the Giants struck with the long ball again as Kevin Pillar crushed a hanging curveball and gave his team a commanding 5-0 lead.

The Phillies offense finally got going once Samardzija was taken out of the game. After a Bryce Harper lead-off walk, J.T. Realmuto doubled down the line in left to set up a scoring opportunity for the bottom of the lineup. Unfortunately the Phillies were only able to muster a run off of an RBI groundout from Adam Haseley. A Maikel Franco pop-up in the next at bat stranded Realmuto at third and ended what could have been a rally to get back into the game.

The bullpen, including a soon-to-be suspended Hector Neris and Zach Eflin, who made his debut out of the pen tonight, prevented the Giants from adding on to their lead. It didn’t matter much as the Phillies were unable to get anything going offensively.

The team will send Jake Arrieta to the mound for an afternoon rubber match against the Giants on Thursday.

Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance

Vince Velasquez:

5.0 IP, 4H, 2R, 2ER, 3BB, 6SO

Jeff Samardzija:

6.0 IP, 3H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 5 SO

Phillies Nuggets Player of the Game: Jeff Samardzija

The decision by Giants manager Bruce Bochy to take out Samardzija after just six innings was more indicative of the modern way of thinking about baseball than his performance. He was spectacular against a Phillies lineup that looked lost. It was a rare quality performance from Samardzija at the home of the Phillies, who came into this game sporting a 13. 91 ERA in three career losses at Citizens Bank Park.

Ticket IQ Next Game

• Thursday at 1:05 vs. San Francisco Giants
• NBC Sports Philadelphia
• Sportsradio 94 WIP; WTTM 1680 (Spanish)